New Learning Technologies: Promises and Prospects for Women

Concerns were raised about being able to create, or maintain, a feminist learning environment to which the content of software and the design of programs are relevant. Feminist educators or learners need tools of assessment (the sharing of stories) to evaluate the uses and applications of technologies. There is a need to train women in technological skills and uses so that a) they can assess what technology is appropriate to their needs and b) they can have control over the use of technology, its design and content.

Most significant actions identified by this workshop are to:

• develop visions of a woman-friendly learning environment on which to base evaluation of learning technologies
  
  
• resist the privatization and comodification of learning by analysing and publicizing the trends and by sharing women's stories of positive learning experiences
  
  
• legitimize women's experiences of using learning technologies in a form that can affect public policy - train women to be informed users and skilled designers and manipulators of technology
  
  
• keep track of how technology is being used, by whom and for what purpose

Opportunities for Learning (facilitated by Cheryl Senecal)
Issues addressed in this workshop ranged from the difficulty in distinguishing between "opportunity" and "access," to discussing disparities in opportunity, to recounting positive learning opportunities that employed new technologies.

Disparities in learning opportunities were identified as existing from province to province and region to region, and as a result of factors such as class, language, learning style, etc. Possible uses or opportunities presented by new technologies have not been guided by cohesive policies or principles with respect to women's needs or in relation to an educational agenda, but have been primarily corporate- driven.

Examples of positive learning opportunities included: providing university level courses to women in an isolated community in northern Alberta through video conferencing (though lack of facility in academic English was overlooked); a literacy practitioner training project through teleconferencing in which students were divided into learning circles; courses through the Virtual University (American) in which "study groups" were used; a computer lab in which students bonded through discussing the social implications of new technology and through teaching each other; and uses of technology to bridge distance and connect remote locations in Canada, South Africa, and globally connecting women across North/South regions.

Unevenness in opportunities available to people with disabilities was cited; in some cases equipment, hardware and software are generously provided and in others they are completely lacking or inappropriate.